Okay, so I'm very happy to be here. Awesome. Can everyone hear me okay? I think probably as I want to talk about building wealth in business, I remember getting some very good advice apparently many, many years ago, dressed for the job you want, not the job you've got. So at 4 o'clock today I'll be serving Mahedos and Dacqueries and I had no idea that was a Riley's, that's how I was like this. All right. It was probably, I actually came here five or six weeks ago today that I was doing that late night drive down to Townsville with the kids in the back going to a socket, a hockey tournament. And my phone rang and looking down at the radio display, it came up with the real Dane Jones on the display. I know, random, right? And it may be laughed because in that split second, I remembered that we had to speak, we've been trying to catch each other for a long time. We've been emailing each other and it was about 98 kilometres an hour down the Bruce Highway as the cane farm's turned into dusk. I couldn't actually remember why the hell. I was stored her name in my phone as the real Dane Jones. I think we've known each other for the best part of 20 years. But was there a time in my past where there was a Dane doppelganger? I've no idea. Were there beautiful women running around cans and impersonating Dane? And if so, why were they giving me their numbers and such frequency that I had to note the real Dane Jones? And how would I ever know if I was in fact talking to the real Dane Jones? Was Dane in fact just a figment of my imagination? And in some Disney-esque pre-shit live-action remakes timeframe, did a fairy godmother sprinkle magic dust over a wooden marionette frame while an insect sung with, when you wish upon a star until she turned into the real Dane Jones? And I was juggling to myself as I answered, because the answer came in the first two words as I was greeted by the most perfect union of eloquent, perfectly articulated diction, years of media training forging a greeting that could have opened a decades worth of news bulletins. Hello, she said, with pitch-perfect clarity. Hmm, sounds like Dane. And then she finished her greeting, like somehow she'd coughed up a chico roll and half a cart in a pool's iced coffee with mate. And that was it, the real Dane Jones. Hello, mate. But in that call, Dane and I, we spoke probably until I got to about Tully, about all the yields of the world. We spoke about the complete Nutter cluster, the truck that was local politics. We spoke about the fundamental issues facing our society, business, our economy, and what's left of our once beautiful country. We spoke about what it took to act with courage, pride and integrity, and why it was important to be strong through adversity. We lamented how much we missed a man who was actually a beautiful mentor and supporter to us both in the late and great Mario Klanah, and what he'd make of the world and our city, if he was still here to see it. In acknowledging that dysfunction, we both agreed that it was probably best that he checked out when he did, because he'd struggled to rationalize how it is that we've departed so far, you know, from his famously held and endorsed values of servant leadership. He would never understand how we'd allowed pathos to reign supreme, and how quickly we've surrendered to complete and utter control and submission. I think he'd look at the breakdown of our ethics and our integrity, and he'd shake his head and he'd shrug his shoulders. He'd want an explanation from good people about why we sat silent while bullies and a-holes reign supreme. He'd want to know why we let them take advantage of the poor and the downtrodden, why we didn't use our voices to protect the meek. He'd want to know why we suddenly felt ashamed of our success, and why we stopped celebrating the best in each other. And when did we become silent against corruption and stupidity? He'd be curious, and I know you would. He'd want to know when we started to idolize morons and give up our drive and ambition so that we could become clones and sheep in a will and sea of mediocrity. How we allowed weak people and weak minds to lead us and to be led, and he'd ask in his inevitable way, what the hell are you doing? He was a man that we loved with all of our hearts, and I know there are lots of people in the room who got to know him and agree. He was a true paragon of what it meant to be successful, both in business, which I suspect he loved with all of his heart, and successful in his connection to his family and his community, both of which I know he loved with all of his heart. So in spite of great Uncle Mario, I'm going to say to the real Dene Jones, who begged me to please behave up here today. I hear your concerns. I completely understand why it's important that we get through the next 49 minutes with a little bloodshed as possible, but I politely decline. If we're going to grow up at all through the, and invest our time and money that we've all dedicated today to be here, it's probably best that we get away from the platitudes and the pleasantries, and that we're willing to get a little bit dirty on the climb to the top. It's time that we aren't afraid to stare our muddy reflections in the pool of sweat, and if you really want to create opportunities from chaos, which is what I'm here to talk to you about today, we must be willing to do what the other guys won't. So to the real Dene Jones, thank you for having me, and I'm sorry. My assigned topic today was to guide you on how to build wealth in uncertain times. In the first instance, I think that it's really important that we address a few things. First of all, number one, what does success itself actually even look like? In our garbage, in the famous world, that thrives on their serotonin jams of public affirmation, we have taken that primeval instinct to be attracted to things that are beautiful as the precursor of what is success and wealth. We have allowed image for supplant acumen, and we are more ready to trust a pretty face than we are to critically access to assess information and opportunity. We've taken the pinstrike suits of those snake oil salesmen of the 18th and 19th centuries, and we've allowed social media to dictate the images of success. We sold ourselves out to the idea that success is externalised, and that it's rooted in what other people perceive of us. What utter bullshit? I have watched online content from influencers who love to present themselves in rented apartments, on rented beaches, in rented clothes, in rented cars, without disclosure, using rented words to sell rented ideas. And for some ridiculous reasons, these idiots live rent-free in our heads. There has always been an attraction to consumerism, since Unger Bunga, the caveman, saw Grunk the caveman in his designer loincloth. And it's fascinating how this translates to modern times, but I'll let you in on a little secret. In your day-to-day scrolling, you get to see the highlight reel. All you see is the very best parts of everybody else's curated lives. I get to see the balance sheets, and it never ceases to amaze me most sincerely, my friends, that there are in fact some people who are rich. And these are the people that make sure that they're seeing at their regular table at Villa, or drive their tossed mobiles with their personalized plates, with obnoxious mufflers, that traffic lights, these are the kinds of people who drive branded convoys to like Tinoroo and Busy Weekends, with their branded business cars telling their branded jet skis and their branded boats, and making sure that everyone in the area knows who's around and what they've got. Their sole intention is to be as obnoxious, loud, and feral as they can possibly be. And I love to post images of their toys, like proud Labrador's, with a really great stick. And in the moment, they're rich, but that is fleeting and it's on borrowed time. The wealthiest clients that I have, a humble, they are gracious, they are kind, and they are generous. They give quietly, they succeed often. They have one marker of success that the overtly rich do not, and that is choices. They have real power because they fly under the radar and they're unassuming. These are not people who would ever describe themselves as rich. They'd never describe themselves as wealthy, they use language like comfortable, [BLANK_AUDIO]
And they aren't compensating for anything. They don't feel the need to market their material possessions and weirdly enough, when you make enough to be wealthy and you actually worth a real dollar, they value the one thing that will reach don't. Time. One of my truest graces over the way that life sumo itself has built itself in the last eight years is our attempt to fly under that radar and to build a business that has been recognised as a dynamic planning business in the country, in many other places around this country, other than this very town. It's been a long time coming, but to have the absolute flexibility to be able to reward staff financially without them having to come cap in hand and beg that is wealth. To be able to have a hard and fast rule that I am home every single night. If I'm in the 4870, I am home for Bed Bath and dinner relentlessly every single night. We value that as wealth. To not think about putting our hands in our pockets to help those in their darkest hours of their lives is wealth and nothing makes us happier. For us, the amount of fights that we take on against the biggest companies in Australia from our little shitty Queenslander in Kansas North and in the East Coast, we have the biggest companies in Australia and in the South Coast, we have the biggest companies in Australia, we have the biggest companies in Australia, we have the biggest companies in Australia, goes beyond the actual physical dollars. It isn't the purpose. It's not our journey. We have a very, very clear and defined idea of what success actually looks like. At its most basic, there is no point aspiring to be successful if you don't know what success actually looks and feels like. If you think you've seen wealth on social media, and you think that it's a well-manacquired, well-lit photo opportunity, you are on the wrong track. Number two, the greatest lie when it comes to building wealth through adversity is that successful people smell like roses. You see, no one gets a manual. And I'm not standing here because I'm a shiny, well-manacquired, beautifully backlit a donner of the person. I'm standing here. Thank you very much. Thank you. I don't need it, but I'll take it. I'm standing here because I am literally what is left after you have been to hell and back. And then visit again for shits and giggles. I'm here because I've made more mistakes than any one person ever really has the right to make. I'm here because I've stepped in every pot hole I could find and I have learned the darkest and most confining lessons of a lifetime and every single one of them is about myself. And I've listened to the rumors. I've read the messages. We have actually received the threats. I have broken and I've been weak. I've suffered greatly with mental illness, battled my own personal problems, and I have seen the lightest lights, consumed the darkest of darks. But you don't ever really know that you're alive until your split seconds away from death. I've made bad choices, but the recognition is simple. They were choices. I have had choices the whole way. I am where I am. Good and bad, solely as a response to the decisions for the choices that I have made and there is no one else to blame for that. I wish I could explain to you just how liberating it is to be able to convert your shadows into monsters. The idea that success comes wrapped in a pretty pink bow and that you can make an omelet without cracking eggs is absurd and utterly juvenile. I've had people threaten to hold my darkness over me in a Keatonian line measure. I've had people raise things like storm financial. My first ever paid salary job as a 20-year-old advisor of which I left two and a half years prior to their collapse. Had them want to hang that over me as leverage in some sort of ideological warfare. Never asserted that to be successful is to have never fallen. And I argue that life, like the stock market, is ruthless. You see growth never ever happens without volatility. Ever. And you don't create wealth in rising markets. You can get rich in rising markets. But you create long-term wealth by what you do in falling markets. You're maintaining the calm, composure, and willingness to grind out the winds and the darkest of times and to not allow yourself to become consumed by fear or greed is where wealth is created. And that is true for business, for investments, for life, and for love. And having the belief and the deep understanding that empowers you to run in while everybody else is running out. That's what will set you apart from your competition. If you are willing to be vulnerable to make mistakes to a tone and to dedicate yourself to helping others in that journey, you are building wealth in ways you cannot possibly further. And if you want to build wealth in uncertain times, you must be prepared to get muddy and be prepared to get hurt. If you come out of an unscathed and without bruises, it's not until you're willing to sacrifice in order to succeed that you win. And it might take two goes, it might take three, four, or five, but growth only comes through volatility. Number three. Here we go. Lions care not for the opinions of lambs. I had a dear and beautiful friend say to me, "I was discussing the ears of the world. I've always loved that you say the things you do publicly. I don't know how you do it. In a town like Kans, I'm too afraid that I'd be outcast. And in hearing her say that, a piece of me really died. The school yard desire to be accepted by the cool kids feels like something that we should have left behind on the port racks of our adolescence. But it got me thinking, how many people are trapped in the falsity of our emerald city and emerald being the perfect descriptor, with jealousy driving the wily additions of the city's pathetic and small-minded lunchulots. You all know exactly who you are. As they pass judgment from their Jade towers without any comprehension of just how rocky and muddy the path is beneath your size 17 new balance. In a bid to drag you down, because God forbid you believe in something. You stand for something. You share a true and important piece of yourself and your identity. But most, the feedback comes. Wouldn't you want these people as clients? Aren't you worried that them thinking poorly of you would affect your business? Ha! No! These are the sorts of people that I'd be more upset if you thought we were friends. Because if you are in the inner sanctum of toxic people, that inner sanctum is probably a rectum. Let's face it. There are what?
100, 150 people who think they run the redneck backwaters that is our little country town. With this population of 171,000 people, you think that 150 toffee nose twits somehow dictate your business's performance or how it operates in the greatest scheme of things. The greatest thing that we ever did as a business was follow the very wise words of a guy called Simon Sinek. I don't know if anyone has ever heard of Simon Sinek. Please be willing to forget everything I have said today except go home and YouTube, Simon Sinek, the golden circle. The truth is, as I have publicly stated many times, I hate me a web guru. And I think that the vast majority of influencers and business coaches may as well be three munchkins under a trench coat. But when you're right, you're right and Sinek was bang on. You don't need to do business with everybody who needs what you've got. You only need to do business with everybody who believes what you believe. We live in a digital world. The vast majority of the earth has never heard of our local lunchulots and nor do they care. And even if they did, who gives a shit? Seriously. Pull your head in. So you've but hurt because some local legend in the lunch box is now crying into their cheap Prosecco at some BS function, hot-nobbing with their mates about how you dare to have an opinion or take a stand on something that matters. What has actually happened to give you a sneak behind the curtain? Since we stuck to our guns and allowed our ethics, integrity and fortitude to guide our voice, is not that we had to shut shop and run out of clients. We got busier. Way busier. 35 to 40 appointments a week, booked out six weeks in advance, busier. And I'm absolutely happy to share our calendar with anyone who wants to see it because it's true. I'm not flexing. It's not a big note. It's true. When you stand up for what you believe and you are willing to do business with people who believe in what you believe in, you are going to get busy. Our basic principle was given the choice between doing what is right and doing what is popular, always do what is right. Don't stop being a vital and loud part of our community. Don't stop advocating for truth and justice all because it might ruffle the feathers of a bunch of people you'd never invite to a barbecue. Being intimidated by these people and feeling this sick compulsion to conform is not making you wealthier in difficult times. It's making sure that you limit your potential to whatever role these drones want you to play in their sick Machiavellian fantasy about the social pecking order of cans. Get a grip. Lions can not for the opinions of lands. And if you do find the time to listen to the next 18 minute video, please do, you'll understand completely why I am so loud and obnoxious in the belief of what I at least believe to be right, which is very different from being right. But it is absolutely what I believe. I'm not going to be silenced by any Lexus driving toss knuckle who thinks they're the self appointed patriarch of Whitfield or the Grand Poo Bar of Gordon Bell. Our world is in a state of degeneracy because we, the business owners, are being treated like second-class citizens by people who have some weird, one, some weird Australian idol for governance. And we just bend over and take it, not just locally, but state and federally too. If you want to be wealthy at any certain times, stop allowing people who would never take the risks that you have taken to build a business to dictate your outcomes. We are in the middle of a war, a war on work and a war on opportunity. We live in a country that has commoditized public service. And we, the business owners, have been bullied into submission. We had allowed both sides of politics to tax us into early graves and sat back while the bureaucracies have infiltrated commerce within an inch of its life. You're all sitting here today hoping I'm going to drop some magic gem or golden goose piece of advice on how to build wealth in uncertain times because you have been suppressed into desperation. Because you cannot get enough in the top of the pot to make up for all the holes being poached in the bottom of the pot. How did it happen? Well, we were too polite. We were too gentle and our apathy has been taken for weakness. You want to start a business in Australia? Good luck. By the time you've registered names, paid Asick fees, applied to councils, gotten approvals, licenses, registration, insurance, then and only then you need to find staff. People who can turn up, well not turning up, not turn up, well not turning up, take every liberty under perform, demand more and do less. And what hope do you have as a small business owner to do anything about it? Nothing. You want to pay live all wages. But you're now up for workers' compensation, superannuation, P-A-Y-G-G-S-T, provisional tax, soon to be taxed on unernding income. How clever is that? You've got audits and registrations, sick leave, annual leave, long service leave, bereavement leave, 13 public holidays, 13 public holidays. And you have to compete with all three tiers of government paying 20 to 25% above market commercial wages to do the same damn jobs. And all you want to do is open an efficient chip shop or run a family business. Small business, largely you in the room, employs 42% of the Australian workforce. About 5 million Australians are employed by small business. 42% and we have the hardest road to prosperity. We attacks within an inch of our life and regulatory regimes and post-mouse are ridiculous. By comparison, in Australia, all three tiers of government, local, state and federal, employ 2.51 million Australians. One in five people that you walk past and can central this afternoon work for the government. They are receiving above market wages for the same types of roles. They're generally exposed, yes, of course, to the PAYYG, tax and GST as we all are. But they're also receiving, as well as the above market wages, salary sacrifice options that aren't generally available to small business owners, as well as increased super contributions, all of which are funded, largely by us. The economic minefield for them to earn their money is virtually non-existent and their wages are paid from our taxes. But these are the people that are imposing and enforcing the limitations on you to go out and do what you do on a daily basis. They're enforcing those limitations on you to not take the risk, stopping us from employing the people that keep our country running in the most over-regulated, over-governed and over-taxed country in the world. And when you look at our failing health system, the potholes in our roads, the dramatic decline in our educational standards, there is hypocrisy and error approach that needs to be addressed. As the late great Mr. Packer once said when asked about his tax minimisation strategies, as a government, I can tell you, you're not spending it that well that I should volunteer to give you more. If you want to know how to build wealth in uncertain times, demand that they run the country with the same veracity that we run our businesses. You don't have the liberty to inflate tenders and wages and spend recklessly without consequence in your businesses, knowing that you'll never have to account for your mismanagement financially. You'll just be replaced by the next succubus that turns up in three or four years after the next Australian Idol for governance. And neither should our elected parties not be held to the same standard. Having a small business owner in this country gives you as much right to be as vocal about what is going on because we are employing the lion share of Australians and we would have a shit-tongue more money in our pockets if we didn't allow ourselves to be walked over at a statutory level. We have so many fiscal and statistical anomalies in this country it doesn't make sense. And we're so scared to talk about it because we'll be labelled a certain way. Before I open the next can of worms, let me make one thing absolutely clear.
Having a social safety net in this country is one of the things that I am most proud of as a contributor to our nation. The fact that we have so much wealth that we can afford to provide for our most marginalized and our most disadvantaged, that we can care for our elderly, our veterans and we can look after our disabled people is one of my greatest points of pride. My problem is not with the safety net. My problem is when the safety net becomes a hammock. The NDIS has a national budget of between 48 and 50 billion dollars. But, ILLION. The number of NDIS recipients in Australia is 700,000. The total Commonwealth contribution to state run public hospitals is going to increase to a record $33.9 billion. Our public hospital system serves close to 95% of our population. The public hospital system services 95% of our population, our NDIS services, 700
000. Make this make sense. Make it make sense. Particularly when we all know that the people who are taken, we all know. Every one of us knows people who are absolutely taking the piss. As recipients and carers or service providers and when we all know people who desperately need the support but either can't get it or have to fight so hard that it becomes utterly overwhelming, make that make sense. We as taxpayers, as small businesses that jump through every hoop imaginable to contribute to this country's prosperity, should not be automatically thrilled at the levels of waste that we endure. We can't look at the fact that 20% of our workforce is in governance and that we are still dealing with horrendous hospital ramping, police are under resourced, our military is underfunded and under resourced. You can be as upset as you want that I've raised political points but that's my point. These things matter and it is intellectually desist to stand here in front of you today and rattle off my three amazing key pointers about building wealth in uncertain times when it's going to be blown or eradicated by stupid spending. The reality is, as I've stated publicly in other matters, how you do the small things is how you do the big things and that matters in a big way. This is exhausting. So what I'm trying to say is, yes, at a superficial level we can have a garbage typical business coaching hyperbole like well if you want to get wealthier set goals, work on your vision, monitor expenses, diversify blah, blah, blah. But if you want to build wealth and if you want to be truly wealthy and not just buy yourself a job, let me recap on what we've spoken about here. One, be absolutely clear on your purpose, your real purpose. You need to be able to articulate your wise succinctly and every single decision that you make in your business and how you draft an email to what type of toilet paper you whack in the loo has to affirm that purpose. Every single decision without exception and you need to get comfortable with communicating that purpose because people don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it. And you don't need to do business with everyone who needs what you've got, you only need to do business with people who believe what you believe. Number two, as I said, get out of your own way. Stop thinking that because you've not succeeded in the past or you've worked through tough times or you've done it a bit tough and you don't deserve success. Stop, stop putting your faith in false idols. Get a bit real with yourself and accept that success is really bloody ugly. You say in bold stuff, it erupts you to kill these torn hamstrings, scoliosis and biangeries and became the fastest man alive. You know who hasn't had a ruptured Achilles torn hamstrings, scoliosis and biangeries? All of you, me, we're also not the fastest man alive. Simple. Steven Spielberg was rejected twice from the Southern Californian School of Cinematic Arts and was dyslexic. But he has 11 M.E.3 Oscars, seven golden globes and his films have grossed $9 billion worldwide. That's the wrap up music that is. You know who hasn't been rejected twice from prestigious school films or being dyslexic? Nice, everyone else. The idea that your success is invalidated because of your personal struggles is utterly absurd. You are not vilified by your struggles as long as you get back up and get back in the fight. If you learn from it and grow, you've won. But you have to get out of your own way. Three, don't get suck it into local nonsense and feeling like you're in some sort of pecking order. We live in a global world and you've got 170,000 people in the immediate vicinity to appeal to. Power, like offense, is taken not given. You don't need the endorsement of people around you. And unfortunately in a small-minded backwater like ours, people who are envious of your endeavor, drive and results will go out of their way to badmouther you and run you down. Stop letting them take that power. Allow those fools to do what they're doing. You don't need them. You don't need their business and you don't need their endorsement. I've been called a joke, a cowboy and a few other choice names that aren't suitable for public consumption and every single one of those elevates me in a way I wish I could explain to you. I know that if I'm doing something right and if you feel compelled to try to run us down, I could have been offended but it was going to take way too long to Google who the hell you were. It means nothing to me. They're just words and the vast majority of people will never hear those words. And if every element of your brand, your identity, your persona and your conduct is true to your purpose, see rule number one, then the opinions of some flaccid, self-important gutter rat is utterly irrelevant. Stand up against corruption, waste and stand for what is right, always. Whatever the cost, again, entities at all levels of government, take power where they are. There is no resistance and every time they do, you will never get it back. So you have to be outraged because every little liberty you give up is gone forever. Just because you're in business doesn't mean that you're now impotent and unable to speak for fear of hurting your business. That's how life in fascist and communist regimes works. The very fact that anyone thinks that speaking up against waste and corruption could hurt their business kills me to my soul. This is the taking of power and I urge you to take it back. And finally, when it comes to creating wealth, the quickest way to lose money is to focus on making money. The quickest way to lose money is to focus on making money. I've had people say to me, "Really, really weird things." Well, we don't want to be rich, but we're only capable of turning over expereinent. Both are ridiculous and stupid positioning statements to take. After eight years, I can tell you, our monthly turnover now in our little business is more than our annual turnover for the entire first year that we were operational. And we do not have one single budgetary KPI in our business. Not one. Our attitude is simple and it is this. We have no control over the number of people that walk through the door. What we can control are the actions and the engagements that they experience once they're in the door. If we focus solely on every part of the process and if we refine that experience on a constant basis, more people are going to come through the door. And the ability to convert those people into clients leads to the natural consequence, which is, of course, making money. If you approach your business with the end in mind, you will most often only ever achieve that end. Business is literally busyness. How can you employ your time to provide a product or service efficiently in a manner that people can easily identify your purpose and build a brand affinity? And the better you are at being productively busy, the more money you're going to make. So finally, don't ever focus on a turnover target and work backwards. That's business coach bullshit. Focus on efficiently communicating and executing your purpose and be relentless in that delivery. The money will come. And if you do that well, you actually have no right to dictate just how wealthy you're going to become in uncertain times. I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to have shared this information with you. If anything, I have said, has upset you or made you uncomfortable. Good.
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